


From SPRQPoint With Love

by reddish_umbrella



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: Action, Agent, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Secret Agent, Spies, Spy!Max, Spy!Zoey, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:15:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26330236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reddish_umbrella/pseuds/reddish_umbrella
Summary: Zoey has a normal life as IT support for a boring start-up. As suddenly her whole world changes...to the better?::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Every chapter is one episode, which as itself is closed. Updates are coming, but they will take time as it is my second side project!
Relationships: Zoey Clarke & Max Richman, Zoey Clarke/Max Richman
Comments: 8
Kudos: 8





	1. My name is

**Author's Note:**

> 01:30 am my time....finally I get to post this chapter.  
> Thanks to LadyLilianRose for the title suggestion and anyway...the discord server is bundle of joy and reassurement every day. Thanks guys!

“I am sorry.” Zoey felt how some strong-arm brushed her lightly and made her open coffee mug spilled over. The drops of the non-fat latte macchiato dropped on her fa-vorite shoes, a pair of worn-out blue chunks. She looked down on the shoes, seeing the drops falling on the white plastic peak. She blinked and was lost in her thoughts.  
“You okay?”, said the voice again and brought Zoey back into reality. Surprised she looked up and gazed in the face of a man. First, she saw the hazelnut brown eyes who seemed to bore into hers. Zoey opened her mouth lightly and gasped for air. The pair of eyes were accompanied by a heart-shaped face, beard stubbles, and thin lips. His hairs had the same color as his eyes, they were thoughtfully short, but not freshly cut as Zoey could make out one single curl in his fringes.  
The man seemed to be almost 6’ which was big for Zoey’s petite figure of 5’ 1’. He seemed to be not specifically muscular under his dark blue winter coat, but his shoul-der was broad, and his chest pulls up. He wore some sort of black business trouser, ironed to perfection, and black Italian styled loafers. Zoey could glimpse into his coat and saw a black satin shirt that seemed to fit perfectly over his body. In his left hand, he was holding a small paper cup with a black liquid; Zoey identified it as a classic espresso. She blinked again; somehow the man seemed out of place in this small cof-fee shop where everything was colorful and chaotic. He was way too stylish and pol-ished to be a regular customer. And he did apologize before he actually brushed her and made her coffee spill which seemed very odd to Zoey.  
“Miss?” His low voice reached her ears again and he faintly touched her hand. He ob-served her face closely.  
“I am…okay”, stuttered Zoey feeling caught by his observations. “It’s just coffee, don’t sweat it.” She tried to smile and skimmed over his face again.  
"I can get you a new latte if you want to." His eyes still bore into hers, his right eye-brow slightly lifted.  
"It was just a few drops, it's nothing. And I have to go to work, anyway." Somehow his whole antics gave her a goose bump. His right eyebrow even lifted higher.  
“Okay”, he said slowly, his low voice creeping up Zoey’s neck. She had to get out of here. The guy made her feel…strange.  
“Yeah”, she said and turned around. Without looking back, she left the coffee shop, purposely putting one step ahead to the other. She crossed the street to a tall and grey office building, slipping to the revolving door. She passed the entrance guards, shooting them only a small smile as she pulled her key through the barriers. She wait-ed for the next elevator to arrive at the ground floor and walked into it in the right outer corner. She couldn't shake off the feeling she has been following, but there was no evidence for it. It was a strange feeling which she had.

Her office phone rang.  
Zoey groaned; she was just fixing a complicated issue with the exchange server. Working as the only one IT system administrator for this start-up was beyond ex-hausting. Her cramped and small office, which was no larger than a broom cabinet gave her claustrophobia regularly. It was dark and dusty, and she hated to work here, but especially she despited being contact trough her phone. Why couldn't the people put their support requests not through e-mail or their ticketing system in, she especial-ly put up to avoid answering the phone anymore. She wasn’t a talker and she kept to herself, mostly.  
Slowly she picked up the telephone receiver.  
“Yes?”, she asked instead of a greeting.  
“Zoey? The X: server isn’t working anymore. Again.” The high-pitched voice of Susan of HR entered in her right ear. Zoey squinted her eyes and sighed internally. Not again.  
“Probably one of the hard drives needs to replace. I will check it, okay?”  
“Please do it fast, I need to access the server soon”, demanded Susan sharply.  
“Sure.” Zoey hung up before she could add anything more. She opened the program to monitor the server room and checked the hard drives. One in the third row was malfunctioning. "Shit." Zoey turned around and looked on her shelf for a replacement. She crammed through the black and over spilling boxes until she found a replacement hard drive. Hopefully, it would still be functioning as the company regularly refused to pay her new technical components and she had reused what she was ever able to harvest. She made her way over to the server room, who was at the end of the hall-way, just next to the disabled toilet. Normally she loved to go there, the room was dark and well air-conditioned, and she was always alone. She held her key on the door pad and the door clicked open. With a large step, she made it to row 3 and she went into her knees to examine the malfunctioning hard drive. As she wanted to pull out the hard drive, she noticed that the drive was cut loose, the cables dangling around it.  
"What the fuck?", she mumbled as she didn't understand who would do that. Before she could think anything more about it, she felt how she got pulled back roughly by her hair and tossed against the floor. She hit her nose and she felt how blood was dripping down her bridge.  
“What do you know?” The voice was somber and dangerous; Zoey didn’t know the voice. Slowly she turned her head to look to her predator’s face only to smacked again in the face and hitting back towards the floor. Her lip was split up, and she felt how she started to shake uncontrollably.  
“I don’t know…what you mean”, she stuttered. Someone else moved over to her body and turned her around. Instinctively she raised her arms to protect her face when she saw the knife in his hand. The attacker pinned her down and the blade neared her body.  
“No!”, she screamed and try to bolt up against the weight of the man. With one swift movement, he cut her sweater in two pieces, leaving her only back in her bra and chemise. Zoey felt how the blade connected with the skin around her collarbone. The cut was itching and bleeding, but it seemed shallow enough to not be dangerous.  
“What do you know?”, demanded the voice again. His voice was muffled through the ski mask he was wearing.  
“I don’t know what you me…”, before Zoey could finish her sentence a hard fist punched into her stomach, making her gasp for air. She felt like she couldn't breathe anymore. The guy who pinned her down took forcefully head and smashed her against the shelf again, making her fall face forward on the floor again.  
Zoey whimpered. Her whole body was hurting like hell and she had the feeling she would most certainly die if she had no answer for the attackers.  
“For the last time: what do you know?”  
Zoey started to sob. “I don’t know what you want from me!”, she coaxed out.  
One of the attackers grabbed her neck and pushed her upwards until she was on her knees. His grip was getting tighter and slowly choking her. Zoey started to fidget and tried to get his grip from her neck. The next thing she felt was the cold metallic shaft of a gun pressed again her temple. She heard the distinct sound of a gun clicking as the gun was unlocked. Zoey felt how black dots were dancing in front of her vision  
“I can easily blow you brain out, bitch. So, you better answer me now: what do you know?”  
That's the end. She would die here in the server room. That was it. She had no an-swer to his question and her brain couldn't make out anything. Her whole body was hurting, and she was feeling like she was on the verge of unconsciousness. The guy would kill her, and she hadn’t the chance to say goodbye to her family.  
Suddenly she heard another clicking of a gun and then a somehow familiar voice said: “Let her go now.”  
Zoey realized that grip around her neck loosened as the guy shifted his gun to the man. She took the opportunity and punched the guy in front of her in the balls. He yawped in anguish and let her go. Zoey dropped to the floor and tried to crawl away on all four as someone pulled her back on her feet. "Noo!", she screamed in shock. She fidgeted and tried to get out of the hold unsuccessfully. On the corner of the eye, she saw one of her attackers laying on the floor get beaten up by the third man. She couldn't see his face in the dimmed room, but he had a blue coat on. A blue coat...like the man in the coffee shop this morning! Before she could do anything, she got roughly yanked upwards on her knees and she felt how the cold shaft of the gun pierced in her right cheek.  
"I will kill her!", screamed the attacker to the man who stopped punching the other attacker. Slowly the man in the blue coat retreated from the unconscious perpetrator who laid on the floor and turned around. It was the man from the coffee shop this morning. He didn't look her in the eyes and only focused on the culprit. His gun was far away at the end of the row.  
"Let her go. I am not interested in a blood bath."  
"Who are you? What do you want?"  
"I already said to you what I want. Let her go."  
"This little bitch here? She's mine. We have to deliver to her."  
"I won't allow it."  
"I give a fuck about you! We will walk out now together!" Zoey's attacker tossed her in front of him, letting her tumbling down on the floor between the attacker and the man. Zoey felt like every vein in her body hurt but she had to get her attacker off her. She lied down on the floor and didn't move.  
"Get up you fucking cunt!" She felt how the attacker grabbed her hair once again and she took the chance and kicked him in his groin. He yelled some expletive and swung the gun in her direction as the man disarmed him with one swift movement and punched him in the face. Zoey heard a noise like hitting styrofoam and the next thing was a scream of pain. She was sure the man just broke the attackers' nose. Instead of falling on his back, the attacked stumbled over her, stepping on her ankle which cracked loudly under his weight. The pain was immense, shooting up her leg and Zo-ey screamed in agony. The man pulled the attacker roughly away from her, tossing him into the nearest sever shelf and knocking him out. As he was panting heavenly, he slowly turned around and looked at Zoey. Shocked about what just happened Zo-ey's flight instinct kicked in and she started to crawl away from him in panic. She tried to get up but the pain in her ankle was too immense and she only managed to limp away from him. "Zoey!", said the man and within a few steps he was standing in front of her, his hand palms opened in her direction, showing he was unarmed. Zoey shrieked back and tried to run away by instinct, stepping up with her harmed ankle. The pain jolted through her body and she felt how she was fainting under the pain. She stumbled forward and almost fell on the floor again as the man caught her at the right moment.  
"Zoey, I am here to help you, not hurt you. My name is Max Richman and you need to trust me right now." He held her steady in his arms and Zoey looked into his eyes who laid worriedly on her. She felt how her breath hitched and she had trouble breathing normally. She wanted to push him away, but she had no strength in her arms. She felt like everything was crumbling down and she was utterly powerless. "Breathe, Zoey. You have to calm done and breathe normally." Max put her down on the floor and helped her sitting upwards.  
"...what?", asked Zoey disoriented.  
"You are hyperventilating because you are in shock. You have to calm down and try to breathe normally or you will faint again." His voice was extremely relaxed and gentle. He took her hand and laid on it his chest.  
"Breath with me, okay?" His eyes fixed on her face he started to breathe in and out. Zoey tried to mimic his breathes and she felt how the dots in her vision started vanish-ing. She felt still clammy, her heartbeat was raising, and she felt nauseous.  
“We don't have a lot of time before they send backup here or one of your culprits awakes. I will carry you down to the garage and drive you to our base, okay?" Zoey nodded slowly and he took her in arms again.

  
Zoey didn't know how she survived the car drive. She was laying down on the rear bench seats and tried to breathe normally. Her heart was still racing, she felt light-headed and incredibly nauseous. Her ankle hurt like hell, the cut on her collarbone itched and she felt how her face got swollen from all the punches she received. Max spoke with her regularly with a calm voice, assuring her that she was safe with him. She barely noticed how he drove into a garage, parked the car, and lifted carefully out of the car, carrying into an unknown building. He was waiting at a door as a tall blond man came towards them.  
"Subject is in shock, irregular breathing, suspected broken angle, several injuries to the head and probably to the torso. Fairly responsive." Max looked at the blond man who nodded deliberately. "Bring her to the infirmary."  
She was carried carefully to a bright lighted place with blueish colors and no windows. Max let her down gently on what Zoey supposed was a stretcher. She didn't compre-hend what was going on. Who were these men who attacked her? And why? She was no one special, working in a start-up who created pedelec motors, doing their IT sup-port. She managed to fix up malfunctioning printers, managed company software, tried to prevent the employees from installing malware…she wasn't anybody im-portant. What could the men meant when they asked what did she know? Zoey's breathe hitched again and she tried to keep the next wave of sobs in. Her whole body was still shaking violently, and she couldn't make any sense of her train of thoughts cycling in her brain.  
"Zoey? Zoey, listen to me. Everything is okay, you are safe now." Max's calm voice reached her ears and she looked up and tried to concentrate on his face. He looked relaxed but she couldn't stop noticing his frown on his forehead and the slight worry in his hazelnut brown eyes. He offered her his hand and reluctantly she took it. He squeezed it lightly and Zoey felt as her head stopped spinning.  
"Now please telling me what they did do you?" Zoey blinked and tried to concentrate. "Tossed me against the shelf, hit my nose…punched me in the stomach….cut me at the…the collarbone." She lightly touched the burning cut. "And my ankle of course…" Max nodded. He started to examine her face, lightly touching her nose and her face. He looked extremely concentrated; his fingertips had a pleasant cold temperature. He checked on the cut and continue to press on her belly gently.  
"Does that hurt?" She shook her head and he came back to her face. He took a small flashlight out of his trouser pocket and started to light into her eyes. Automatically Zo-ey blinked and squinted her eyes.  
"Any headache?" Max observed her face. Once again Zoey shook her head.  
"I am good", she said. She was feeling better and it was thanks to Max's relaxed ap-pearance around her. He shot her a skeptical look.  
"What is your full name?"  
"Zoey Clarke."  
"What's your father's name?"  
"Mitchell Clarke."  
"What's your usual coffee order?"  
"It's not espresso, for one." Max cracked a smile.  
"Okay, seems like your head wasn't hurt too much." He sighed. "I will fix up the cut; it is only shallow, so it won't need stitches. Your ankle is most likely broken, but we know that exactly after Leif made the x-ray." He turned around and searched in a white plastic box for disinfection and bandage. He started to gently clean the cut and put gently bandage on it.  
"What are you?", asked Zoey suddenly. He raised one eyebrow.  
"What do you mean?"  
"Are some….some kind of James Bond?"  
He chuckled lowly. "I am not British, that's for sure."  
"But you are…a spy, are you?"  
He didn't say anything, only looking into her eyes. "I would prefer the term agent." "So what is this…FBI? CIA?"  
"It's complicated, Zoey. I think I have to talk to…"  
"You have to talk to M first, right?" Zoey looked at him, with big widened-eyes.  
"We just call her Joan." He laughed and turned around. He pulled one fluffy red blan-ket from the shelf and spread it over Zoey. He gently tucked her in.  
"Try to rest, Zoey. We will talk later about this all. If you need anything, just ask Leif." He pointed to the tall blond man who just rolled a large device into a room. "He will take the x-ray from your ankle. I will come back, okay?" He squeezed lightly her hand again, his eyes fixed on her face until she faintly nodded. With one charming smile on his lips, he turned around and left her in the infirmary with Leif.

"Zoey?"  
The sound of her name woke her from a dreamless twilight sleep.  
A lanky man with blond curly hair was peeking over her and had a friendly smile on his face. Zoey frowned; it took her a few minutes to realize where she was. At the same time, she also felt the pain in her foot and face.  
"Leif?" She croaked.  
He nodded and handed her a glass of water and a white tablet. "Ibuprofen. Against the pain. You can of course also have aspirin if you want, but I didn't know if you are allergic to it because I haven't read your profile. ”  
“My profile? ”Zoey looked at him confused.  
Leif sighed. "Oh, okay. Max will explain this to you in more detail. I'm just the girl on duty here.”  
“ The girl on duty x-rayed my foot and bandaged it so professionally? I didn't know that girls on duty nowadays have so many useful skills. ”Leif smiled and Zoey tried to smile, but felt directly how her swollen face hurt. She grimaced.  
Leif handed her an ice pack, which was wrapped in a striped kitchen towel.  
She accepted it gratefully and pressed it lightly against her swollen face.  
“I work with Tobin in the technical department of our agency, so to speak the forensic aspect of the work, not the information department. Max trained me in first aid at some point, his first degree was also as a paramedic.”  
“ Oh, okay. Speaking of Max, do you know where he is right now? ”Leif leaned back in his swivel chair.  
“I notified him earlier that you were awake. He said I should bring you to the front. ”  
“To the front? ”  
“To the control center. Where the others are too. They still have a few questions for you.”  
“ You for me? Hello? I'll pester them with questions first because I still have no idea what's going on here! ”Zoey massaged her face. The day was getting incredibly crazy and exhausting. She had no idea how she got caught in the middle of it.  
"Zoey? You do not have to worry. You're safe here and we'll take care of you.” Leif looked her straight in the eye, still a smile on his face.  
"So, you don't knock me down and threaten me with a gun?" Zoey tried to ask the question ironically, but she still felt dazed by what had happened in the server room.  
Before Leif could answer, she heard Max's voice speaking from the doorway.  
“That would firstly be against my good upbringing and secondly against our code of ethics.”  
He stood there and smiled encouragingly at her. He had taken off his blue coat and unbuttoned the first few buttons of his navy blue satin shirt. He looked even more se-ductive than before. "I checked our cellar and we have no longe crutches and you re-ally shouldn't put any weight on your foot. So, I thought I would offer to bring you to the control centre", he explained.  
He came up to her and offered her an arm so that she could lean on him. Reluctantly, Zoey put weight on her healthy foot and supported her other side with Max’s arm. Slowly hobbling, they made their way out of the room towards the hallway. Zoey visi-bly had trouble hopping on one leg and she cursed softly to herself.  
"I can carry you again if it gets too much for you," offered Max with a gentle smile.  
"Oh come on, if you continue to carry me so often you'll get back pain," joked Zoey to distract from the topic. Of course, it would be easier if he would carry her, but it would be too embarrassing in front of the others. Then rather hobble around like a lame rab-bit.  
"Oh no, you're as light as a feather anyway." He smiled and grimaced as if seeing Zo-ey struggling to limp. "Remind me that I'll get you crutches; I can't watch that any fur-ther."  
"Because you used to be a paramedic?" Zoey asked to distract from himself.  
“Was Leif chatting? Yes, I was. It was a long time ago, but it's often useful on duty. ”  
“Such a dangerous life as a spy?”, joked Zoey. "With James Bond, it always looks so easy."  
Max gave a small laugh and looked at her mischievously. "Wouldn't have thought you as a James Bond fan."  
"Wasn't that in my profile?"  
Max sighed loudly. “Leif really couldn't shut up, could he? No, our profiles normally don't cover that.”  
“ Why was a profile recorded about me at all and who is doing that? ”Zoey asked curi-ously.  
"I wrote your profile and to answer your question ...". He paused. They had reached an electronic door. Max was holding a door card on the sensor to enter the room. The door opened silently, and a large room spread out in front of Zoey with several people sitting at tables and staring at their screens. On the wall hung an oversized OLED screen that was slightly curved outwards. There was so much different information on it that Zoey couldn't understand anything with. At the very front, there was a raised bar that overlooked the entire room. A woman with black hair was sitting next to it. She looked up and beckoned Max and Zoey to come close. Max nodded briefly and offered Zoey his arm again. "To answer your question, I created a profile of you be-cause a few days ago your name suddenly appeared on a terrorist organization's kill list." Zoey felt nauseous and she had the feeling that ground was being pulled from under her. Without much ado, Max reached around her waist and kept her from falling over. “But that won't happen. We won't let that happen. You’ll get the details soon.”

“We found your name on the list of kill order from a terrorist organization called FourthFloor a few days ago. Then Max shadowed you and created a profile, which revealed that you are completely harmless and there is no reason to kill you", ex-plained the man at the notebook, who had introduced himself to Zoey as Tobin. He had a thick black beard and brown skin. He was dressed like an overgrown skater boy. Joan had directed them all into a conference room to explain to her what they found in their investigation so far.  
"But why? I'm just working in IT support for a start-up company… ”Zoey noticed how her throat was slowly getting stuck. She no longer understood the world. Was she on a terrorist organization's kill list? Max, who seemed to understand that she was about to cry, gently touched her arm to calm her down.  
“Did something special happen at work? The company you work for is… questionable. ”  
“What do you mean? ”She asked, surprised.  
"The founders, the whole company has only existed for 18 months. Before that, there was no information about it. The entrepreneurs didn't exist either… "  
“ But they told me that they had been around for over three years! ”Zoey couldn't be-lieve it. She was lied to by her superiors? But why?  
"Zoey… we believe the company is just an excuse. The company serves as a hub for FourthFloor. "  
“ But then I should know about it, I was hired by them! "Zoey looked around at the faces present. "Do you think I am part of a terrorist organization, too?"  
Joan, who was mostly sitting quietly in the background, laughed humourlessly. "No, we don't think so. They just needed an ignorant idiot to do basic IT support. ”  
Max looked at her with a slightly desperate expression on his face, as if he wanted to ask her inwardly to withdraw.  
"Zoey, you're probably the only one who was hired regularly. That's why you're com-pletely alone in a small office. You probably landed on that kills list because you saw something you shouldn't see. So ... has anything special that happened in the last few months? "  
" No, it was just the usual work ... connecting printers, solving any software problems ... "  
" Have you changed something in software or something similar? "  
" I introduced a ticketing system and I have ... oh. "Suddenly it dawned on Zoey and she turned pale.  
"What did you do?" Joan barked at her.  
"I ... I ... started making automatic backups of the employee's PCs. I talked to Susan from Human Resources about it just last week and she was terribly upset about it.”  
“Where did you store these backup copies? ”Tobin asked quickly.  
“On a hard disk drive in my office. In the roll container in the last drawer, which was lockable. ”  
“ We need immediate access to it. Max? ”Joan looked at him and he nodded promptly.

“So, the plan is as follows. I'll go upstairs to your office and get these hard drives and bring them back down. You stay down here in the car and wait, okay? You don't do anything else. ”  
“Max, are you sure I shouldn't come with you? At least I know my way around the of-fice, you don't. ”  
“ Zoey, you have a broken ankle and you've already been beaten up like that. I will certainly not take any more risks for you. ”  
“ Hmm. ”Zoey didn't feel okay in her role as a spectator. She had explained everything to Max as detailed as possible, the best way to get to her office without being seen and the fastest way to crack the drawer. But she would rather have come up with him instead of waiting down here.  
“Please don't worry about me, Zoey. I'm a trained agent, I know what I'm doing.”  
He gave her elbow a quick squeeze and then got out of the car with a final smile.  
Zoey was doomed to wait, and she waited. Anxious, chewing on her lower lip. She didn't have a good feeling about these things. Since she knew that her employer she had worked for the last eight months was only cover for a terrorist organization, she could no longer trust anyone. What if Max was ambushed by someone? She couldn't answer for that. Sighing, she massaged her eyelids.  
"I have to get up there," she muttered to herself. She took another deep breath in and out and made on one-legged and hobbling her way towards the office.  
When she got to her floor, she immediately realized that it was eerily quiet. She hob-bled as quietly as possible to her office room when she saw Susan in the distance. She stood with her back to her open room and had both arms stretched forward. What was she doing there? And was Max already in there? Zoey leaned against the wall and tried to slowly sneak forward. Finally, she could hear what Susan was saying.  
"... I knew the idiots were incapable of doing a simple job! And now we have a strange secret agency on our necks. But I'll take care of you and believe me, I know how to kill people! "  
To her horror, Zoey could glimpse a gun in her hand. The gun was focused on the neck of Max, who was kneeling with his arms stretched up in her small office. Zoey knew she had to do something, no matter what, but she had to do something before Susan shot Max. She looked around: there was an extremely ugly mini palm tree in the long hallway. Zoey couldn't stand it but had repeatedly watered it and put it in the sun. So, she knew she could lift the palm. It would hurt a lot from putting a strain on her broken ankle, but she had to deal with it later. With a few steps, she went to the palm tree, lifted with all her strength above her head, and tumbled with it towards Su-san. With a loud cry and the last of her strength in her short arms, she tossed the plant at her. Susan, who realized her presence too late, was surprised by the mini palm tree in the back and stumbled over Max. Susan turned her around instinctively and aimed at Zoey with her gun still in her hand, but Max got ahead of her. With a well-aimed kick to her hand, the pistol flew out of her hand and landed on the old worn carpet. Max kicked it away and it landed under a dusty shelf. He reached out with his right fist and hit Susan in the face with full force, breaking her nose. She laid there screaming. Max hurriedly opened the bottom drawer and packed the hard drives. He straightened up and stepped into the hallway to the still panting Zoey.  
"We have to get out of here, now." When Zoey tried to limp after him, he vigorously shook his head.  
"There is no way I will see you hobbling around with your foot here." With no other word he grabbed her under her legs and arms and carried her bridal-style down the fire escape.

Three days later, Max and Zoey were sitting in a cafe and watching the hustle and bustle of the streets of San Francisco. Zoey had her broken ankle, now plastered, on a chair, and was looking sideways at Max. Today he was dressed less formally, he wore a blue and white squared shirt and faded blue jeans. His feet stuck in black chucks. He had invited her here. "At least I have to buy my lifesaver a coffee," he said with a laugh on the phone when she asked why.  
“And”, Zoey interrupted the silence, “could you do something with the hard drives?”  
Max watched and smiled. "Yes, thanks again. Tobin and Leif are already evaluating them. That was an important hub for the FourthFloor. We have now significantly weakened the organization.”  
“I'm glad to hear that, even if it means for me that I don't have a job anymore.”  
Zoey smiled crookedly so that Max wouldn't worry about her. The situation was not exactly easy for her, however ... having no job, references and a broken ankle didn't make finding a job any easier.  
Max took a sip of his espresso and said to her: “That's why I wanted to talk to you. We'd like to offer you a job at the agency.”  
Zoey blinked in surprise; she must have misheard.  
"As for what? You already have Leif and Tobin in the technical department."  
“Not in the technical department. In information gathering. In fact ... as my partner. "  
Zoey choked on her hot non-fat latte. Max patted her carefully on the back and hand-ed her a napkin. When she had composed herself again, she whispered to him: “As a… spy? And why me of all people?!”  
“First: we are agents, not spies. Spies sounds too much like James Bond to me. We want to recruit you because we think with your expertise in computer science but also a person with the initiative you would make a good partner me. I am more the people pleaser; "he grinned smugly, "and I need somebody who’s more logically and rationally thinking on my side. But first, you will need an apprenticeship, so you would start as an agent candidate in the agency."  
" Apprenticeship? What does that mean exactly?”  
“That means that you will be trained as an agent by us or rather by me in the field and if you pass your exam, that you will then be a normal agent. ”  
"I don't know ... it's a very dangerous job. "  
“That is not always the case and you also learn to defend yourself properly. ”  
“ But… don't you have to be a genius or something? Or at least went to an elite uni-versity? ”  
Max gave a short laugh. "No. Unfortunately, this is a rumor that has always lasted. Besides, we're neither the CIA nor the FBI. ”  
“ Oh… I still don't know… ”  
To her great surprise, Max took her hand. His warm hand was over hers and she could feel goosebumps forming on the back of her neck. Every single hair on the back of her neck stood up.  
“Zoey, how often have you been bored as a system administrator? Wouldn't you like to have a job that fulfils you? "  
" Yes, but what happens if I want to quit because I don't like the job? "  
" Then you quit? "  
" Then “I won't ... "She lowered her voice," exterminated by you? “  
Max sighed loudly and began to massage his temples. "Please forget everything you have seen in films or series about spies so far, because 90% of the time it is not true anyway. No, of course, we wouldn't kill you. You sign a confidentiality clause and that's it.”  
Zoey was silent and looked out the window. The idea was tempting, of course, and they would probably pay a lot more than their last job. And she had student debts to pay. And Max ... Max was nice. She liked him.  
“How exactly does it work?”  
"First you will be subjected to a health test and if you have been declared fit enough, you will be sent to a training camp. In your case, it would mean as soon as your ankle has healed. "  
“Who will be my instructor? ”  
Max took his coffee cup in his hand and grinned over the rim of the cup at her. "Make a wild guess.”  
Zoey felt her heart skip briefly. The effect Max had on her was starting to make her a little worried, but she couldn't say she didn't welcome it.  
"Okay."  
Max held out his hand to her and with one last look into his hazel eyes, she hit it.  
"You won't regret it, believe me." He smiled at her.  
Zoey wasn't sure if that would be the case, but she would try. For themselves. For Max. For the exciting life as a secret agent. Clarke, Zoey Clarke.


	2. Training Camp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoey needs to survive the training camp to continue her program as agent...but the odds are against her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- What a monster! -   
> Again, late in the night I give you ... a lot of effort. It felt like a lot of effort to write this chapter.   
> I hope you all can enjoy some angst...action...and fair warning: blood. 
> 
> As ever...thank your for the best loveliest people in the world on the server, who give strength and joy almost every day.

"So, are you excited already?" Tobin's excited voice cut through Zoey's lost thoughts. She had just stared out the window for several minutes at the dark gray city. Although San Francisco knew no real winter, today was a very unfriendly day and Zoey would have preferred to stay at home than to drag her butt to work, listening to Tobin explaining another technique of hacking into federal servers. Not that Tobin was a bad teacher; not at all. The theoretical part as an agent made quite fun and was not so different from their studies in computer science at USFCA. What increasingly worried her was what came after the practical test. And this came closer and closer. Her cast had been off for over a week now and she had been trained in self-defense and target practice by Jessica, another field agent. It wasn't a nice affair, because Jessica was a lot fitter and she always brought Zoey to the edge of her limit. At least now she knew how to knock the gun out of someone's hand.

"Um yes ... so yes, sure ... I don't know ... actually no," Zoey reeled to herself

Tobin began to laugh, his oversized hoodie in dazzling neon colors, slung around his gaunt torso, vibrated under his laugh, which was a mixture of derision and amusement. Zoey frowned; she had nothing against Tobin and she could understand his point of view on the whole thing, but she really had a stomachache when it came to the whole thing. Even though she had been taught the basics of self-defense, she did not feel in the least prepared to go to this training camp. The policy of the secret service, however, was to throw its candidates into direct action so that they could learn to harden up and then gradually teach them more on the missions in the following year. But first, there was a training camp that would take place somewhere in a secret location. Zoey didn't know anything about it, only that for weeks she had been asked again and again by her work colleagues whether she was excited about it.

Sure, I'm happy to survive alone in the middle of the wilderness - who doesn't like to go into the absolute wilderness without prior knowledge of how to survive? was Zoey's snappy answer in her head. Instead, she just nodded silently and tried to hold back her apparent fear.

"It won't be as bad as you imagine it is now." Tobin tried to smile encouragingly, but Zoey could still hear the slight mockery that was on his face and in his voice.

"How do you want to this? You are in the technical service, you never did the training camp for the field service "; observed Zoey dryly.

"That's true, but I can't imagine that our golden boy let you die somewhere, just because you can't make a fire with two stones and consequently you are eaten by wolves." He winked at her and then said in a more forgiving tone. "And if you do, if you are still able to move, I can certainly convince Joan to hire you as my assistant

Zoey groaned and Tobin began to laugh out loud. "Please don't," she muttered. Tobin wasn't a bad guy, but before she became his assistant, she'd rather be doing IT support for a corrupt start-up again.

"Anyway ... let's continue decoding the code." Tobin turned his back on her and continued his explanation of how to enter a secure social service server.

When Zoey walked through the offices of the SQRPoint in the evening, she looked around again. She has been coming here almost every day for two months now, and yet only a fraction of what this secret service actually did, she did understand. The name was as SQRPoint, an acronym of some sort, and it was a privately funded agency not like the usual intelligence agency in the US. Zoey didn't know where the money for this secret service came from and when she asked Leif about it, he evaded her question.

"Let's put it this way, it definitely comes from people with the right motivation behind it," he said simply.

Their specialty was global human security, but SQRPoint only seemed to cover a certain area. The agency itself wasn't big and they couldn't fight on all fronts. The technical and field agents all acted on the principle of a code of ethics, by which Zoey had to swear on the first day of work. Stated in there was, amongst other things, that killing was only allowed if it was absolutely inevitable, so there were no contract killings per se or a license to kill. So, Max was right when he told her to forget everything she had learned from spies and agents on television or the cinema, it was all different than expected.

Speaking of Max ... she hadn't seen him in over a week. So far, she had had nothing to do with him either, since the theoretical lessons were mainly given by Tobin and Leif. But he would go with her to the training camp, which would take a full four days.

"Zoey!" Joan's voice boomed through the whole office area and made some employees twitch their heads unreally in their direction. Ah, wonderful.

Zoey slowly trudged towards Joan's work desk, which laid over all the other tables at the front end of the room. A huge OLED screen hung above her, providing current figures. By now Zoey understood some of the displayed numbers, unlike when Max brought her into this room for the first time.

Joan dressed all in black again. She was wearing a tight black blazer, including a woolen turtleneck that fell loosely over her hips, and tight black leather-look pants. Her lipstick was claret and her eyes were underlined by a thick line of eyeliner. Her feet were in menacingly high black pumps that gleamed in the light of the office lamp. It wasn't like Zoey had respect for Joan; she feared this woman dearly. She always made the impression as if she could make you disappear forever in any basement hole. Zoey felt comfortable in her cozy oversized mint green T-shirt, which featured Daniel Craig as James Bond and Eva Green as Vesper on a poker card. She had put on older faded jeans that were slightly too big for her and rolled over the shaft of her light pink chucks. When she saw Joan's withering look at her current wardrobe, she wished she had made more effort to dress this morning.

"I heard that you are going to the training camp the day after tomorrow. Are you ready? "Joan's tone wasn't threatening, but determined.

"I think so," Zoey said and cleared her throat to moisten her dry throat.

"You think so?" Joan asked skeptically. She had narrowed her eyes and Zoey's heart slipped into her pants.

"Yes, it's only been two months and I've only been able to train for ten days. I'm not sure if I… "she started stuttering, but Joan interrupted her harshly.

"The training camp is not about being perfectly prepared for it. It's about how well you act under stress. We do not organize these training camps without reason. We measure the probability of how well you can do as an agent and whether it is worth continuing your training."

Zoey gulped. "Who's going to judge that anyway?", she asked carefully.

"Make a wild guess", Joan said when she suddenly looked over Zoey's shoulder. "Max!"

Zoey turned around and saw Max approaching Joan's desk. Today he wore a light blue shirt without a tie whose three upper buttons he had opened. Zoey could sense a thin gold chain underneath. He was again wearing navy blue denim trousers and, and like the last the black leather loafers, which gave his very casual look an incorruptible elegance.

"Zoey," he said in a slightly amused voice, looking at her t-shirt. The corners of his mouth curled up, but he didn't comment on it. "Joan," he said to his superiors with significantly more seriousness.

"I heard that you completed the job in Aarhus in an exemplary manner. Our partners at _Politiets Efterretningstjeneste_ were very satisfied with your performance. Congratulations. "Joan nodded approvingly, and Max smiled.

"Thank you, Joan. I have to say, however, that our partners at PET do an excellent job and the job was therefore very easy for me."

Joan waved that off. "I don't even want to hear that. You did a good job because you are an excellent agent and that's it. Therefore, the training camp with Zoey will be a piece of cake for you."

Max smiled and turned to Zoey. "This Sunday, isn't it? Are you looking forward to it?"

Zoey raised a left eyebrow and despite the presence of Joan, she couldn't hold back any longer. "Get released in the wild and hunted by you? I can't wait. Better than Christmas."

Max laughed out loud and Joan snorted. "It's half as bad as you think or the others have told you. Nothing bad will happen to you." Joan cleared her throat.

"Besides, Max's statistics speak for themselves. All of the candidates' Max recruits make it through the training camp."

Max nodded in agreement and smiled encouragingly at Zoey. "In any case, Max picks up at 7 am on Sundays and takes you to the airport. You will get everything else there, but you should definitely take warm clothes and good shoes with you. "She handed Max a piece of paper, which he accepted and carefully studied. He whistled through his teeth

"I haven't been there for a long time"; he said. "Normally we're taking them to New Mexico."

Joan shrugged. "I thought it would be a better fit. And now please excuse me, I'm busy." With a gruff gesture, she pushed Zoey and Max off her desk. The two slowly crossed the large office room.

"Where have you been again?" Zoey asked because she was just too curious to hold it back.

He grinned. "Denmark."

"Aaaaah.", She said and fell into silence. When they reached the door to the main hall, she turned back to Max. " Be honest: what's going to happen if I don't make it?" Max grinned at her and put a hand on his shoulder.

"That won't happen, believe me, and then I'll still be there and in the worst case, I can collect you. So far, however, all the recruits I was supposed to train have made it. That's half as bad as you think."

"Promise?"

" Promise, Vespers." He winked at her smugly and stepped through the door.

Two days later, they were sitting in a private jet on their way to the secret location where the training camp would take place. Zoey had gone shopping at Walmart the previous Saturday because she didn't have really warm clothes and she was expecting the worst. Max had started to snort when he saw her packed in front of her house, but he had refrained from any comment. Zoey looked around, the inside of private jets looked like they were shown over and over again in films and series. A mix of clinically clean and snobbishly comfortable. Max was sitting across from her studying a magazine. A magazine that was printed on paper. Zoey couldn't help but try to see what he was reading.

"It's not the Playboy if you want to know," he replied without looking up.

Zoey noticed how she blushed like a teenager and she quickly looked out the window. Max grinned and folded the magazine. It was National Geographic and the cover story was about the Alaskan wilderness. Zoey stared at it and she could feel the gears rattling in her head.

She turned pale. "Not seriously?!"

Max scratched his head, slightly embarrassed. "I'm afraid so. But I think it will be less bad than you now imagine. I was there with a contender a few years ago and we made it."

"In winter? "Zoey asked surprised, still inwardly flabbergasted that she should survive alone in the woods in Alaska _in winter_

"Well ... it was closer to summer than now."

"Great!"

"Zoey," he leaned forward and put his hand on her lap. Zoey wasn't a person who liked to be touched, but Max was… different.

"You will be equipped with a GPS transmitter that can also be used as an emergency transmitter. So, if you really should get lost in the snowy forest and you can't get out there on your own, then I can use it to locate you and collect you."

He gently squeezed her knee and then let go.

"But then the exam would be over, wouldn't it?" She asked skeptically.

"Yes", he sighed. "Yes, it would be. But this has never happened to me and you certainly won't be the first to do it. I have complete confidence in you."

When Zoey stood a few hours later in the middle of the Alaskan forest, only with her luggage with the tent, sleeping bag, the most important utensils, and a sealed white envelope in letter size she was doubting his reasoning with her. The transmitter was dangling from a chain around her neck. It was hardly bigger than a standard button. Zoey looked around. She stood in a glade of trees, the branches of which gently moving in the wind. Her thick boots stood firmly on the meter-high snow. She was deep in her burgundy packed parka and Zoey was glad that she got the thermal pants last minute. In the distance, she could see mountains covered in snow, just like those in the immediate vicinity. She didn't know exactly where they were, only that they landed in Anchorage and were taken from there in a jeep. Max had only told her that he was going to take her to a national park and he had to blindfold her for the last few miles. The final piece to this clearing they both marched silently up until he stopped at this point stopped and handed her luggage. He had given her the envelope with the request to open it only after it was outside of her view, as it was the briefing for the mission. Finally, he gave her the emergency transmitter. The little device was attached to a silver chain and had a red button in the middle. A small lamp on the black case blinked every few minutes.

"This is for emergencies; in case you get off the track and don't find your way back." He looked her intently in the eye. "But it is also in the event of an emergency, such as being injured by a wild animal or a person. If that happens, please press this button quickly and don't wait long. You shouldn't get killed out of sheer false modesty."

" Didn't you say that I would fail if I use this thing?"

He shook his head. "Not necessarily. If you are attacked by a bear and you lie bleeding in the forest, then there is no reason to exclude you from the program. If you get lost and can't find your way out of the forest, yes there is a reason to exclude you. Because that situation could happen to you as well as an agent in the field ... if you are injured by a wild animal that's not something which you are supposed to cope with alone. They're just two different things."

He looked at her again, his serious expression giving way to an encouraging expression. "I'm sure you'll be fine."

"And what will you do while I am fighting potentially hungry brown bears ?"

He grinned mischievously. "I'm playing your opponent and I always be hot on your heels. But you'll see that soon." He winked at her and turned around.

Zoey watched him disappear between the trees and suddenly felt her heart sink into her pants. So, there she was ... the first real rehearsal as an agent candidate. Suddenly she didn't have the confidence that she would make it. Zoey shook her head resolutely and tried to distract herself from such thoughts. She could do that. She had managed her previous life too; she had only just been attacked by professional killers and had survived this; she would also manage this training camp. Determined, she tore open the white envelope and read her briefing carefully.

A day later Zoey stomped through the snow in search of the building what according the briefing hold the target. The fresh snow crunched softly under her massive boots and the profile was clearly visible on the surface. She had survived the first night in the tent well, it had not been a comfortable sleep, but it was enough for her to start the next day. She hadn't freeze very badly after she pulled the mummy sleeping bag up to her nose, she successfully fell asleep after some hours of laying awake and listening anxiously for hungry bears. Camping alone in winter wouldn't be her favorite pastime, but it wasn't as bad as she thought. It was just a shame that she couldn't rub this fact under David's nose, her annoying older brother, who would certainly be blown away by the fact as he thought Zoey was a total sissy. Carefully she climbed down the hill towards the road. The compass was in her left hand and she tried to follow north. From the information in her briefing, she had an idea where the building would be. The goal was to regain an external hard drive, which was stolen by a foreign terror organization before they could move it to a different location. Zoey strongly suspected that Max would wait for her at said building and play the enemy force in question. She didn't have a weapon with her as she was supposed to get the hard drive by sneaking into the facility. The meeting point for picking her up afterward was about 10 miles from the initial target. Due to the coordinates stated in the briefing, Zoey discovered she was in Denali National Park. She sighed and pulled her black woolen hat a little lower over her forehead.

You can do this, she said to herself. She had talked endlessly with Leif about strategies and methods on missions. She could do this, she had decided to take up this training as an agent and she certainly would not run away from her first challenge. With a determined look into the distance, Zoey continued her way through the freshly fallen snow.

She reached the valley after several hours, the old barrack standing in the open field. It was a rudimentary single store concrete building that had suffered noticeably from the Alaskan weather. The ground around it was covered with muddy mud and Zoey could see some footprints with her binoculars. She sank deeper into her hiding place, a snowy bush, and waited. Suddenly she could see a man's profile. Max.

"Bingo," Zoey whispered to herself. Max repeatedly patrolled around one door in particular. Most likely the entrance to the room with the hard drive in it. Now she just had to sneak up skillfully, go into the said room, and steal the hard drive. The biggest challenge was really that Max didn't notice. Max was a good agent, but Zoey was confident she could do it.

Max had been sneaking around the barrack for a few hours now, looking for Zoey. He wouldn't make it easy for her if she tried to sneak in, but he wasn't going to shoot her mercilessly, like at his training camp. Even if it was just blank cartridges, he was terrified when Joan attacked him from behind. He could only count on her mildness that he somehow made it out of the building and dragged himself to the meeting point with a sore back. She confided in him later that she should have let him fall through the test, but she saw too much potential in him. Max accepted the compliment but also had the strong suspicion that there was also another motivation behind it like Joan wanted to show her husband Charlie at the time that she was quite capable of recruiting resourceful agents herself.

Max sighed deeply. He tried to remember when he started his training as an agent and he counted eight years. At the beginning of this year, he finally achieved the status as a senior agent, which gave him some more privileges and ultimately served as the pledge when he tried to convince Joan to get Zoey as a new addition to the team. Joan hadn't been convinced at first that Zoey was capable of this kind of work, but his repeated requests to give her a chance had her given in. And he needed a new partner. He'd finished his cases without a hitch for the past six months, but it felt like he was missing a second role in it. Someone to confine into. He needed that in the long run and momentarily, there was no one else who was in the agency and was eligible. Not since the dilemma with Autumn.

Suddenly he heard it rustling and he turned his head in the direction of the sound. He couldn't quite make out the direction of the sound, but it had to be one of the surrounding bushes. "Uh-huh!", he muttered to himself. It had to be Zoey. Max remained in his position against the sidewall of the barrack and leaned against the weathered and damp concrete. He waited to see what she would do. After a few minutes, he could make out a shadow that was crouching but nevertheless approaching the door with quick steps. The door, which was of course locked, was worked with a specialized break-open tool. Max looked at his dark blue Tissot watch with a dark brown strap. She managed to pick the lock within three minutes. Impressive. She must have practiced this with Leif a few times. He felt her rush past him and step into the room. With nimble fingers, she was searching for the hard drive. Max grinned. She would be scared to death if he suddenly stood behind her, even if he swore not to shoot her in the back. But some fun was allowed, even for the instructor. He took a few steps in their direction before he had the distinct feeling a bullet was flying beside his left shoulder. Before he could even grasp what was going on, mayhem suddenly broke loose.

Zoey visibly winced when she heard the first shot. She had just found the external hard drive in a pocket in the corner under a small metal table, which was dented and uneven in the corner, opening the pock clammy and cold fingers. Instinctively she ducked away. She was sure that Max didn't just start shooting for no reason, and even then, it would be blanks. If real cartridges were used in this training camp, then she would certainly have received the briefing in advance. Recovering from her initial shock, she tried to sneak slowly to the door with the external hard drive. Still crouching, she lurked behind the door and tried to make out what was going on out there by listening. She heard footsteps, gasping breaths, and a gun reloading. After some time she had the feeling her way was free, so she opened the door a crack and looked it was safe to go. She couldn't see anyone in her field of vision and with a deep breath, she straightened up and began to run in the direction from which she had come.

"Zoey!" Max's panicked voice made her come to a sudden halt. He stood pressed against the wall, his hair stuck to his face with sweat. He didn't have a gun with him and judging by the look on his face he was very stressed out. But if he didn't fire the shots, who was? went through Zoey's head as something hit her left calf. She felt her thermal pants get damp and it took her a while to realize that it was her blood that was coming out of the wound. It felt like hot metal was pressed against her bare skin, burning like hell. The adrenaline set in and she remembered what her Leif had preached to her over and over again.

"If a mission goes wrong, it is your first duty to secure the intel and then immediately leave the scene and return to the last scheduled meeting point."

Like on autopilot she stumbled into the woods, dragging a fine line of blood drops behind her.

Max saw Zoey get hit by the bullet and then stumble on her way. He cursed inwardly. He would have to pick up her later and bring her to a hospital as quickly as possible. But first, he had to get rid of the attacker who had already shot through the second gun magazine. Unfortunately, Max didn't have real bullets, just a small pistol with a magazine in case of a wildlife attack and that wasn't near him. He had to take out the attacker manually, he didn't seem too smart if he was already at the second magazine and still hadn't hit him. Max was pretty sure that the hit in Zoey's leg just had been a stroke of luck. Although the attacker seemed to have a rifle and plenty of ammunition with him, he seemed to be operating on the principle more is more. Max couldn't stand guys like that. Fortunately, most of them weren't shined with too much intelligence. He looked around. He had nothing in his immediate area apart from a few stones. Stones, he thought, that's exactly it! He bent down carefully and collected the filthy stones. He waited until the attacker was pausing his attack, Max threw some stones in the direction of the bushes which were in front of him. It wasn't long before he heard footsteps coming closer and closer. It was Max to attack the culprit from behind. With a skillful movement of his right foot, he kicked the attacker's feet away, so that he landed face-to-face on the muddy ground. Max threw himself on his back and hit his opponent so hard on the ears that he started screaming. With his entire body weight, he pressed the attacker down and Max fished at the same time with his right hand in a side pocket of his pants for the satellite phone.

" Max, 00L. I have an incident here and I need reinforcements at _Denali Barrack_ immediately. We were attacked by an intruder at gunpoint, but I was able to arrest him. Zoey has been injured and is on the way. Can you please send me your location of the GPS transmitter?"

Max heard what was said being acknowledged and snorted in disbelief when he heard what he was told. "What do you mean she hasn't activated the transmitter yet?!"

With shaky fingers Zoey remove her black boots and thermal pants from her wound, suppressing cries of pain. The textile was soaked in blood and the wound still hurt like hell. She laid under the protection of a large oak, which stood a little apart of some bushed and gave the necessary cover. She hadn't got far with her leg, but at least she had gotten out of the immediate field of fire. She tilted the open flask with the disinfecting solution over the wound and snarled over the burning sensation. Zoey was feeling incredibly nauseous, she hated to see her blood, but she had no choice. She pulled out the gauze bandage and with ice-cold fingers, she slung it carefully around the injury. It was probably more of a grazing shot than a real gunshot wound, but Zoey couldn't stomach to look too closely. With immense effort, she pulled the bloody sock back over her foot and stared into the distance. With the pressure bandage around the shot, she could no longer put both of her boots, but with only one boot, she also risked her toes freezing off. Zoey felt tears welling up in her eyes, but she was an agent now, she didn't have the privilege of crying. She would do it, she would not fail in the last part of this mission. With clenched teeth, she hobbled through the snow. The foot without a shoe was completely cold and numb within a few minutes. She cried out in frustration and tried to move on, but the pain radiating from her injured calf was so overwhelming that she sank to her knees in the snow.

"I can't give up now!" she said to herself while salty tears ran down her flushed cheeks. It burned hellishly and Zoey just wanted to lie down in the snow and die. But that was no option, she had to come to the meeting point, even if she had to crawl there. No way she would use the GPS transmitter now, she had suffered enough to be thrown out of the program. She would fight and if she would only move like a snail, it was worth it! She got on all fours and began crawling through the ice-cold snow. She didn't know how long she had been moving there before hearing her name. Suddenly Max was facing her.

"Oh my God," he uttered given her condition. He grabbed her torso and hold her up and checked her for injuries with a glance.

"How is your leg?", he asked, looking at the bandage, which had already turned red.

"Hurts like hell," she muttered.

"Was there a bullet in it?", asked Max. He would have loved to look for the injury on the spot, but it would be too much of a risk for infection.

"I think it's just a graze, but I'm not sure," she stuttered, instinctively propping her on Max's shoulder. He carefully put his arm around her.

"Well, that's not too bad. They will sew the wound in the hospital and you will get antibiotics."

"Who was that Max? Why are they shooting at us while we're just doing training exercises? "

"I have no idea ... I hope we'll find out soon. I was able to arrest the attacker and handed him over to the local emergency team. But he wasn't very talkative, and I had to find you first. But we'll find out soon."

He looked at her and said half worried, half amused. "Greetings by the way from Leif. I had to wake him up to activate your transmitter externally. Do you remember how I said you shouldn't hesitate to activate it if something like that would happen? "Max looked slightly reproachful at Zoey.

"I didn't want to be disqualified, especially not after being shot," Zoey said in defense.

Max rolled his eyes and mumbled something about "you will be my death one day." But the look he gave her way was understanding, even gentle. Zoey noticed how she was blushing again and she was immediately relieved when he suddenly looked up at the sky.

"Our helicopter should be here soon, I gave them your coordinates." He looked at Zoe again, his expression was regretful. "It didn't go as planned, but you did a brilliant job. Even a better one than I did back then."

"What happened back then?"

"Joan shot her entire magazine of blank cartridges on my back. I had bruises for weeks afterward.

"Zoey grinned. "At least something, I was better than Max Richman. That's exactly what my ego needs now."

Max grimaced, but happily joined her smile. The ring of the satellite phone broke the brief moment of togetherness and Max answered. He walked a few steps away from Zoey and appeared to be on the phone with someone from the agency. Zoey looked at him from a distance; she liked Max. There was something about him that made his company very easy to get along with, even though Zoey wasn't normally a people person.

Max hung up and came back to her. "That was Joan. She told me the attacker is now being taken to Anchorage for questioning. I will later go there too, but first I want to take you to the hospital in Fairbanks. The helicopter will be here at any minute. "

He pointed to a black point in the sky which was getting closer and closer. "And by the way," he said as the noise of the rotating propeller was getting louder and louder., "Joan said on the phone you passed the test, I even didn't need to convince her. I think she was impressed by your stamina. Consider yourself an official candidate for the agent program."

When he saw Zoey's surprised face, he gently squeezed her shoulder and said, amused:

" Joan is not a monster, you know, she even has good days. I am looking forward to many exciting missions with you, partner. "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gimme please cookies or kudos! Or comments with cookies on it! *slobber*

**Author's Note:**

> I do take comments and kudos as reward for my hard work ;-)


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